Unforgotten season 6: next episode, recaps, cast, plot, interviews and everything we know

Unforgotten season 6 is back which will be very welcome news for the many fans of this long-running cold case crime drama.

The opening episode of the last Unforgotten season 5 was the most watched programme on ITV1 in 2023 so far, so it’s safe to say fans will be eagerly anticipating the start of the new series.

Sinéad Keenan and Sanjeev Bhaskar are back as DCI Jess James and DI Sunny Khan, who have thankfully moved on from what was a tense start to their working relationship.

Sinead says: "“I am absolutely delighted to be stepping into the world of Unforgotten once more. To be involved with the incredible team at Mainstreet on yet another set of stellar scripts from Chris Lang, with the brilliant Andy Wilson at the helm is a real treat. And to get to work again with Sanjeev, Carolina, Jordan, Pippa, and Georgia is an absolute joy. To call it *work* is a total misnomer. I can’t wait to get started!”

Sanjeev adds: “I’m humbled and excited to be back as Sunny Khan, bearing the backpack for series 6 of Unforgotten. Chris’s scripts, as ever, are intriguing, detailed and empathetic. Andy’s direction and the skill of Sinead and the cast make this a warm and creative experience that so much more than a job. Once again I feel lucky to be a part of it.”

Unforgotten season 6 will follow the detectives as they investigate another gripping cold case, which is a murder from the past, unraveling secrets and unearthing buried truths along the way.

Each of the six episodes will be written by Chris Lang, the man behind The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, so we can’t wait to see what’s in store for our detectives.

Here’s everything we know about Unforgotten season 6…

Unforgotten season 6 release date

Unforgotten season 6 is a six-part series that launched on ITV1 on Sunday, 9 February 2025 at 9pm with the second episode on Monday, 10 February, at 9pm.

The remaining episodes will play out on the following Sundays and Mondays at 9pm.

For those who can't wait, the whole series is available as a box set on ITVX now.

* You can catch up with Unforgotten season one to five on ITVX.

Unforgotten season 6 cast — Sinéad Keenan on playing DCI Jess James

Sinéad Keenan plays DCI Jess James, who arrived in Unforgotten season 5 to replace Cassie Sturart (Nicola Walker) who'd been killed in a car accident. The mum's first day didn't go to plan as her husband admitted to an affair and completely threw her. She didn't start off particularly popular with her colleagues, especially Sunny who was still grieving the loss of Cassie.

Sinéad says: "In terms of her home life, we’re six months on, or thereabouts. At the end of series five, in terms of where she is with herself and husband Steve, she’s found out that he had been having an affair, and then subsequently that it was with her sister, which is no small thing, but at the end of the last series, it did look like she was going to stay, she was going to work through things with Steve. And at the start of this series, it appears that is the case. But obviously the shadow hangs. It looms large, that shadow of the infidelity, and Steve appears to be trying his best, and it looks like they’re trying to work through it. But the detective in her… it’s still niggling away, and she reaches out to her sister, and then that whole part of her life unravels a little bit further. In terms of work, her and Sunny are working really well together. She seems to be getting along with the team. Her work life is, again, much more improved than the first couple of days of the last series. So, her work life is definitely on a more even keel than her mhome life at the minute.”

* Sinéad Keenan has starred in several big shows including Being Human, Showtrial, Derry Girls, Doctor Who and Little Boy Blue. She played Theresa Ryan in Three Families and appeared in My Left Nut, Deep Water and Moving Wallpaper.

Sanjeev Bhaskar on playing DI Sunny Khan

Sanjeev Bhaskar has played DI Sunny Khan since Unforgotten season 1, when his detective partner Cassie Stuart was played by Nicola Walker. Ever since Cassie was killed at the end of Unforgotten season 4, Sunny has been devastated at the loss of his friend and confidante. He only pulled himself together during Unforgotten season 5 when he managed to get along better with his new partner Jess.

Sanjeev says: "The first episode opens with, as is traditionally the case, a body that’s been found. This time it’s body parts that have been found in a marsh, the waters have receded a bit, and somebody has spotted something suspicious, called the police in, and its body parts. So it’s quite gruesome in that sense.”

Jess and Sunny still getting to know each other and there are still areas of each other’s lives that they don’t know, but they have an understanding now, and that makes them more of a team. Also, because, in series five, they didn’t know each other, there were huge trust issues between Sunny and Jess. And I think that without knowing too much about each other’s lives, they’ve built a degree of trust with each other, which allows them to become better partners.”

“It’s interesting because everything becomes a little bit easier. But it’s also really great fun to play antagonistically with someone that you really like, because you can push it a little further and you can go a little further. So that was fun in series five, certainly for me. Sunny was carrying around a lot of grief in series five, which can be very heavy when you’re filming it. Somebody said that when you’re performing something intense, your body doesn’t know the difference. Your body doesn’t know that you’re pretending so it has to go through the weightiness of grief, or anger, or any of those challenging emotions, but it’s made a lot easier when you’re surrounded with people who you like. So that was an interesting place for me as man actor to be.

Sanjeev Bhaskar starred in the hugely successful series The Kumars at No. 42. He’s also been in Yesterday, Paddington 2, The Indian Doctor, Sandylands, Goodness Gracious Me and The Sandman.

Who else is starring in Unforgotten season 6?

The rest of the cast for Unforgotten season 6 includes MyAnna Buring as Melinda Ricci, an outspoken television commentator based in Ireland, Maximilian Fairley plays Martin ‘Marty’ Baines, an autistic man who lives with his mum Dot played by SOme Mothers Do Ave 'Em star Michele Dotrice, Elham Ehsas is Asif Syed, an Afghan refugee training for his UK citizenship test, and Victoria Hamilton is Juliet Cooper who works as a history lecturer at a London university.

Other familiar faces are back, including Andrew Lancel as Jess’s cheating husband Steve who had been having an affair with Jess’s sister — he returned to the family home. Georgia Mackenzie also returns as pathologist Dr Leanne Balcome who grows closer to Sunny this series. Emmet J Scanlan plays Patrick. Kate Robbins (The Couple Next Door, Death in Paradise) plays Jess' mother, Kate.

Unforgotten season 6 plot

DI Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and DCI Jess James (Sinéad Keenan) have a gruesome cold case to solve in Unforgotten season 6 when a body turns up in Whitney Marsh.

As the investigation unfolds, four characters, who are all linked to the crime in some way, are introduced. Melinda Ricci (MyAnna Buring) is an outspoken television commentator. Martin ‘Marty’ Baines (Maximilian Fairley) is an autistic man who lives with his mum, Dot (Michele Dotrice), in Kent, Asif Syed (Elham Ehsas) is an Afghan refugee and Juliet Cooper (Victoria Hamilton) is a history lecturer at a London university.

The working relationship between Sunny and Jess, who was brought in to replace DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) following her tragic death, is far more harmonious.

Is there a trailer for Unforgotten season 6? 

There's no trailer for Unforgotten season 6 yet available but when one becomes available we’ll post it on here.

Series recap: What happened in Unforgotten season 5? (Warning — spoilers ahead!)

Here's our recap of Unforgotten season 5. There are spoilers so please give this section a miss if you haven't yet watched the series.

Sinéad Keenan’s DCI Jess James replaced Nicola Walker’s DCI Cassie Stuart, who died in the Unforgotten season 4 finale. Jess had a rocky start as on the first morning of her new job, her husband admitted to an affair.

At the end of the series, we saw Jess and Sunny Khan solve the murders of Precious Falade and her son Joseph Bell, son of cult leader David Bell. They were told by witness Jay Royce (Rhys Yates) that Precious was accidentally shot during a tussle between Tory MP Lord Tony Hume and his secret great-grandson Joseph. Hume had raped Precious’ grandmother many years earlier and had been paying out hush money ever since.

Royce said that after Precious’ death, Hume shot Joseph as he knelt beside his dying mother. Dying Hume was charged for the crime but a dramatic twist revealed that in fact, Precious had accidentally killed her son and then turned the gun on herself.

Jay admitted to his nan Ebele (Precious’ estranged mother, played by Martina Laird) he’d lied so Hume would receive payback for the hurt he’d caused their family.

Behind the scenes, filming news and more on Unforgotten series 6

Unforgotten series 6 began filming in spring 2024, and is created and written by multi award-winning screenwriter Chris Lang and produced by Mainstreet Pictures.

Chris Lang says: “I'm incredibly excited to be about to start filming the sixth series of Unforgotten, with a story that has been gestating for nearly eight years, since the 23rd June 2016, when our country seemed to fracture in two. The UK, and indeed the world, has today never seemed more divided, and series six attempts to try and understand how we got to where we are now, and perhaps more importantly, where we can go from here.”

Unforgotten series 6 will be directed by Andy Wilson (Ripper Street, Spooks, The Forsyte Saga) who has been the sole director responsible for directing each of the previous 30 episodes across five series of the globally successful drama. Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes, on behalf of Mainstreet Pictures, return to executive produce alongside Chris Lang, Guy de Glanville (Unforgotten, Gold Digger, Age Before Beauty) and Andy Wilson. Carmel Maloney produces the series (Time, Domina, Dublin Murders).

Sally Haynes says: “After the huge success of Series 5 with the brilliant team of Sinéad Keenan and Sanjeev Bhaskar, Chris has once again delivered a compelling and timely story that reflects the world we live in through the mystery of a dismembered corpse buried in marshland and the people whose lives connected with him. It’s going to be another gripping ride.”